As the sun sets on Marion Island’s western shore,
a quartet of wandering albatrosses breaks out
in the species’ ritual dance, a complex suite of calls
and gestures, including a “sky calling” display
from the bird at right. Wandering albatrosses
mate for life, and the dancing behavior, typically
performed by subadults, helps individuals
size up prospective partners.
$10,000 bills, which is what a bluefin tuna rep-
resents,” Wanless said—a potentially stronger
incentive is the market for sustainably harvested
fish. Pursuit of this premium market, particularly
in Europe, has already led many South African
fishing vessels to pay for independent observers,
to ensure compliance with bycatch rules. With-
out an observer on board, even a captain like van
Antwerpen may be tempted to break the rules.
The best way for a government to ensure com-
pliance is to mandate that every vessel be outfit-
ted with a digital camera to monitor its catch and
bycatch. When Australia did this with its tropical
tuna-fishing fleet, in 2016, ship captains placed
panicked calls to Australian regulators, asking
where they could buy bird-scaring lines. “Once
there’s a camera on board, the game’s over,” Wan-
less said. “ You’re risking losing your license for
failing to buy a hundred dollars’ worth of gear.”
Another promising technological advance is
the Hookpod, which consists of a hard plastic
case that snaps around a baited hook, protect-
ing the bait from birds and birds from the hook,
and doesn’t spring open until it has sunk to a
safe depth. It is theoretically possible, by making
the Hookpod standard equipment on all long-
line vessels, and by requiring all trawlers to run
bird-scaring lines, and by simply banning gill net
fishing (as South Africa has done), to render the
world’s oceans safe for seabirds. For now, though,
the global situation remains atrocious. Wanless
and Angel have expanded their outreach to the
fisheries of South America, Korea, and Indone-
sia, with not altogether discouraging results, but
the fleets of China and Taiwan, which together
account for two-thirds of fishing vessels on the
high seas, operate with little or no regard for sea-
bird mortality, and they sell their catch in mar-
kets mostly indifferent to sustainability.
Wanless estimates that 300,000 seabirds,
including 100,000 albatrosses, continue to be
killed annually by long-liners alone. This is hard
enough on the abundant species, like sooty shear-
waters. But many species of albatrosses, which are
slow to reach maturity and typically breed only in
alternate years, are threatened with extinction.
And, as harmful as modern fishing practices are,
there’s an even deadlier threat that seabirds face.
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